Random ramblings of a mind damaged by years of disuse and abuse. Also a place to go to be bored to tears.

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

No Surprise

Is anyone seriously thinking, at this point, that life only exists on Earth?

Yet, I came across this yesterday. It seemed like this was being touted as "big news" when I have been thinking it's a foregone conclusion. Granted, Mars may be devoid of life today but that is no reason to believe it has always been barren of life.

It brought to mind a song by Creedence Clearwater:

Oh, it came out of the sky, landed just a little south of Moline.Jody fell out of his tractor, couldn't believe what he seen.Laid on the ground and shook, fearin' for his life.Then he ran all the way to town screamin' "it came out of the sky."

But let me go back to the wider view, the one that encompasses the galaxy in which we live and, perhaps, the entire universe. The Milky Way Galaxy contains 100-400 billion stars. How many of these have planets orbiting them is unknown. And how many of them are stars which, assuming planets do orbit them, are capable of creating a "Goldilocks zone", providing an environment where life might get a successful toehold.

But I don't think, except through the sheer magnitude of possibility created by statistics, that intelligent (as we might define it) life exists elsewhere. We are pretty ego-centric here on Earth, we think we are the epitome of evolution. If I may digress...

On Monday night, on Bones, Dr. Jack Hodgins is enamored of Lamprey Eels and especially because they have not evolved for the past 360(?) million years. He seemed surprised by this and I thought that odd for a scientist. Why should they evolve beyond a point where success of the species is assured? Perhaps they evolved to a point where they have almost perfectly adapted to their environment. No need to change further.

Man does but man has no particular environment, he lives anywhere he can and expands his boundaries constantly. In my thinking, man is both a part of nature and apart from it.

But let's get back to extra-terrestrial life... We may find something akin to intelligent (as we define it) life elsewhere in the galaxy. The sooner, the better, I believe. But I doubt it will happen in my lifetime. Which is too bad. Because I am beginning to doubt intelligent life exists on this planet.